13 of the last 20 IPL matches played at Hyderabad have been won by the team batting second.

Betting Tips

Back Rising Pune Supergiant to win (2.14 at time of writing on Betfair).

Match Overview

It was 1 win each when these 2 sides met in Pune's inaugural season last year. Pune won the match earlier this season in Pune thanks for a brilliant run chase my Dhoni. The Sunrisers posted an inadequate 176 after the openers got them off to a slow start.

Both Warner and Dhawan have changed their game plan since that match. They are now batting much more freely at the top. In the Sunriser's last 3 matches they have batted first and made totals of 207, 209 and 185. They defended the totals over 200 but failed to defend the 185 against a resurgent Delhi in their last match.

The Sunrisers have the IPL's top wicket taker in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and one of the best spinners in Rashid Khan. Their bowling is a little weak outside of those two and has been targeted on occasions by opposition batsmen.

Pune are on roll winning their last 3 matches and only losing 1 match in their last 7. All their batsmen are have performed at different times in the season. At the start of the season the bowlers struggled to bowl economically but in recent games they have become the most economical in the IPL.

The Hyderabad pitch has favored the team batting second in recent years. Since 2014, 13 of the 20 IPL matches played there have been won by the chasing team. The Sunrisers have won every match at home this season. 4 of those 5 matches they have defended totals.

The Sunrisers are the top rated team in the T20 Cricsq ratings on 104. Pune are below them on 96 points. Pune are on the rise and playing well this season with a number of match winners in their side. The current odds on Betfair are 1.87 for the Sunrisers and 2.14 for Pune. I have backed Pune to cause the Sunriser's first home defeat of the season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Batting

David Warner is top runner scorer in the IPL this season with 489 runs with a strike rate of 150. He opens the batting with Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan is currently 6th in the runs table with 369 runs with a strike rate of 126. In recent matches they have been batting much more aggressively enabling SRH to make big totals.

Kane Williamson has been batting at 3 for the last 5 matches. He has 228 runs with a very good strike rate of 162. The only time he struggled was against Delhi on Tuesday where he scored 24 at only a run a ball.

Yuvraj Singh and Moises Henriques bat at 4 and 5. Yuvraj was back in form against Delhi scoring a wonderful 70 off 41 balls. Henriques has made valuable contributions throughout the IPL and now has 225 runs with a strike rate of 141.

Hooda and Ojha bat in the late middle order. Neither have had much of a chance to bat with the top order doing so well. Hooda has 78 runs with a strike rate of 150. Ojha has 54 runs from the 3 opportunities he has had to bat.

Bowling

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the top wicket taker in the IPL with 21. He leads the SRH seam attack and has an economy rate of 6.6. SRH also have one of the best spinners in the tournament in Rashid Khan. He has 12 wickets with an economy rate of 6.8 an over.

The trouble for SRH is beyond these 2 their bowling can be expensive. Against Delhi Mohammed Siraj and Siddarth Kaul both went for around 10 an over. Kaul now has 8 wickets with an economy rate of 9 an over and Siraj has 6 wickets with an economy rate of 9.6. Ashish Nehra has been injured recently but he has gone at 9.6 an over this season.

With Williamson playing as an overseas batsmen SRH are an all-rounder short. Moises Henriques is a batting all-rounder and has gone at 10.8 an over. Their other options are Mohammad Nabi and Ben Cutting. Cutting has gone at 9.9 an over but the spinner Nabi only went for 7 an over in the match he played. However, it is unlikely Williamson or Henriques will be dropped to make room for him as they are both scoring runs.

Rising Pune Supergiant

Batting

All of Pune's batsmen have performance at points during the season. Smith, Dhoni, Stokes and Tripathi have all played individual innings in run chases that have been the difference between victory and defeat.

Rahul Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane open the batting for Pune. Rahane has 226 runs with a strike rate of 121. Tripathi was amazing against KKR scoring 93 from 52 to single handedly ensure a win chasing down 155. He now is Pune's top runs scorer with 352 and has a strike rate of 155.

Steve Smith bats at 3. He has 333 runs with a strike rate of 135. He has chipped in throughout the season. His best performance was seeing his team home against Mumbai in their first match. Manoj Tiwary bats at 4. He has 190 runs with a strike rate of 146.

The middle order consists of Stokes, Dhoni and Christian. Stokes now has 244 runs with a strike rate of 143. His best performance was his hundred against The Lions. Dhoni has 204 runs but has a worrying strike rate of 110. His main contribution was his perfectly timed run chase in the first match against SRH. Christian has chipped in with 68 runs with a strike rate of 162.

Bowling

Pune's bowling has improved throughout the season. Most of the bowlers currently playing have economy rates of under 8 runs an over.

Imran Tahir is their leading wicket taker with 17. He bowls aggressively as a spinner in the middle overs. He has an economy rate of 8 runs an over. In recent matches Washington Sundar has been the second spinner. He has 4 wickets from 6 matches with an economy rate of 7.1 an over.

Jaydev Unadkat and Shardul Thakur are the Indian seamers in the team. Unadkat has 12 wickets from just 7 matches with an economy rate of 7.85 an over. Thakur has 5 wickets with an economy rate of 8.9 an over.

Stokes and Christian play as overseas all-rounders. Stokes has 7 wickets with an economy rate of 7.4 an over and Christian has 6 wickets with an economy rate of 7.2 an over. These two are keeping Lockie Ferguson out of the side who has 2 wickets from 2 matches an economy rate of 6.4 an over.